When I started to work in Hollywood in 2012, I was an assistant. I remember long days I spent setting up and tearing down conference rooms from meetings.
Those meetings were for developing ideas. We had writers coming in and pitching features, we had agents pushing us books, and we occasionally had meetings with magazines who outlined all the articles coming up that may make good film and TV.
If we sparked to anything, you'd bring a writer or director in for a take, then try to set it up at a studio.
Studios then paid those writers and directors to work out the kinks in those ideas. And once we all felt like they were good, we'd set a shoot date and go from there.
But that doesn't happen anymore.
Hollywood its Research and Development budget. And if we don't get it back, we're in big trouble.
Let's dissect this issue.
Why Research and Development is Important
The Thing
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Do you ever wonder why movies and TV in the '90s seemed much more diverse and interesting? Well, when Hollywood paid for research and development, they were much more interested in green lighting ideas from new voices.
And they took fliers on making new actors into stars.
It was a really cool time for new voices and faces to break into Hollywood and leave their mark. We even had a great introduction to international stars.
Well, in the last 20 years, that's gone by the wayside.
Hollywood has prioritized IP and packaging for the last 20 years and it's come to a head. They took the people who were already stars and fed them all the work, with smaller and mid budgets tossed out.
The proving ground is gone, and so has the space to try new things.
We have far fewer new voices able to carry new franchises, and the burden of creativity has been put squarely on the shoulders of writers.
Writers are no longer being paid for research and development. That means, it's gotten harder and harder to survive in Hollywood.
If you aren't from a rich family that can float you or you don't find a stable side job (thanks No Film School) your ability to afford living in Los Angeles and making the necessary connections is fleeting.
Even if you have that job, it's taking even lyng to break into the larger paychecks, because you have to actually get a bigger movie made to prove you can hang in the big leagues.
This scenarios is crushing diverse voices and stifling the next generation.
If it doesn't change, Hollywood will simply devour itself.
How Does this Change?
I listened to a great episode of The Town with Matt Belloni, and he had on The Black List's Franklin Leonard, who touched on this subject.
The funny thing is his solution to the problem was a simple one: Hollywood needs to go back to research and development.
Just go back!
The studio that pivots to prioritize research and development is going to be rhe one who produces the most hit movies, finds the best collaborators, and actually makes a difference in Hollywood.
It will also be the one that survives.
I love Hollywood, I want to see many more people's dreams come true, along with my own. but if we place the burden solely on the writers to come up with perfect scripts that their reps have to package to sell, we're going to wipe out an entire generation, maybe two.
Maybe all the rest of them.
Let me know what you think in the comments.
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